Inside a semitrailer packed with produce at Prielipp Farms & Greenhouse, the sweet odor of melons mingled with the dryer, crisper odor of drying corn stalks stacked against boxes of knarly yellow, orange and blue gourds.

The trailer, and two others, were packed for trips to farmers markets in Oakland County the next day.

The transition from summer to fall was under way this September evening, but the farm still was selling plenty of summer produce, said Paul Prielipp, whose father, Mark Prielipp, and uncle, Dan Prielipp, own the massive greenhouse on Downing Road south of M-50. They also farm 3,000-plus acres of corn, soybeans and wheat in addition to 100 acres of produce.

Tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, okra and melons were all still in season, Paul Prielipp said. Gourds and pumpkins were just starting to come in.

The produce came through the summer drought reasonably well, Prielipp said.

“Things have been a little late, though,” he said.

Probably more affected by the drought will be the corn and soybeans. Some ears of corn are about half their normal size, Prielipp said.

The farms’ irrigation system, using water pumped from a nearby stream, is used mainly on the pumpkins, squash and chrysanthemums, he said. Other produce gets a good squirt of water when it is transplanted in the field through holes punched in long strips of plastic that help retain moisture, but no further watering occurs, Prielipp said.

The farm does minimal or no tilling of the produce beds in the spring, so moisture is not lost, he said.

Most of the Prielipps’ plants and produce are sold at farmers markets, but there are some retail sales. Now the greenhouse is mostly empty compared with spring, when it is packed with bedding plants and hanging baskets.

A walk outside the greenhouse takes a visitor to the rows of chrysanthemums across the road. The farm grows 30,000 to 40,000 pots of them a year. Each pot has a tube and a drip device coming off an irrigation line.

“I think it’s just the color; they come in a lot of different colors,” Prielipp said about chrysanthemums’ popularity. “People are looking for something nice for fall.”

The farm also has planted pots of asters and decorative kale for sale at the farmers markets.

Nearby, in another growing patch, Mark Prielipp is picking some of the first pumpkins of the season, most of them a little larger than a softball. They are mostly bought by children, he said.

While the farms do some wholesale and sales to institutions, most of their sales are to individuals at farmers markets, he said.

Down the road, in one of the produce fields, rows of peppers, tomatoes and melons are still producing, and another 20- to 25-acre field is filled with pumpkins.

Page 2 of 2 - “All of harvest seems exciting to me,” said Paul Prielipp, who graduated from Adrian College this spring and is spending his first fall full-time on the farm, where he plans to make his career.

Four or five people, including him, his dad and his uncle, do almost all the produce picking, he said.

In another field, he shows off the new 9410R John Deere tractor, which was delivered about two weeks previously. The tractor has GPS, which makes it more efficient and allows the operater to drive mostly hands off, Prielipp said.

He is looking forward to the chance to use it.

“I really enjoy running the equipment,” Prielipp said. “I could spend all day, 16 hours, on the tractor, and be happy,” he said.